Tag : stress management for kids

Last week we wrote about the benefits of sunshine for your health and happiness. Unfortunately for most of us year-round sunshine is but a distant dream. We’re here to tell you that that doesn’t matter, merely being outside can help your body and your mind:1) How nature helps your body – If you tell a friend in Japan that you are stressed they may tell you to try ‘forest bathing’. Forest bathing involves immersing oneself in the forest in order to relax. This might sound strange to those not accustomed to it but actually research shows that it can work. Forest bathing trips not only reduce stress but also boost the immune system. The same effect isn’t seen after a city-break suggesting that nature has a special restorative power [1]. I know what you’re thinking, not many of us have the time or an available forest to escape to. The good news is that a forest is not strictly necessary. Other research has shown that just 11 extra trees on one city block can reduces residents’ risk for heart disease [2]. Chronic stress affects our immune and cardiovascular systems so when you’re stressed out try planning a walk in the country or just take a moment to admire nature in your everyday environment.

2) How nature helps your mind –We’re often told that one remedy for work stress is to go for a walk. But did you know that you can boost the effects of this by taking your walk in a green space? Researchers in Stanford University sent one group of volunteers to walk down a busy main street for 50 minutes and another group to walk in a local park for the same time. Those who walked in the park not only had lower stress and improved mood when they came back but their mental agility was better than when they had set out. Although the walk through the city improved mood, it didn’t have the same range of benefits as walking in the park [3]. So the next time you’re facing a stressful day at work grab your lunch and head out to the local park or green space. You might find that not only does your mood improve but that your brain is better set to face the challenge ahead.

Calm Breathing

Equipment:
(Optional) – Toy bubble container

Activity Instructions:
This is an activity to help children learn to recognise and regulate their breathing. Often when children are stressed or anxious they will complain of physical symptoms such as tummy pain or a sore chest. This is because they are not able to understand or articulate their feelings well enough to tell you that they are anxious. Children are also unlikely to notice that their breathing is quick and shallow when they are anxious, something that only further increases a feeling of panic. This exercise gives children a technique to use when they are feeling worried to help them relax.
You can do this with a small or big group. Stand at the front of the group with the children at desks or on the floor facing the leader. You can amend the script to suit the group or use this text:
Today we are going to practice our calm breathing. This is a special trick to help you feel calm if you are worried or scared about something. We are going to learn how to do it today and then you can keep practicing it yourself.

I want everyone to sit comfortably on their chair. Keep your back straight and your head facing the front. You can close your eyes if you want but you don’t have to. Now, I am going to count to 3 and we are all going to take a slow breath in. I want you to make the breath last until I get to 3 and after that I want you to breathe out just as slowly while I count to 3. Don’t gulp the air in, just breathe in slowly and feel yourself fill up with air.

Are you ready? Ok,

Breathe in 1 —- 2 —- 3 —-. Now breathe out 1 —- 2 —- 3 —-.

Did everyone feel themselves inflate like a balloon and then deflate again? We’re going to try that again and we’re going to do it a few times in a row.

Breathe in 1 —- 2 —- 3 —-, breathe out 1 —- 2 —- 3 —-.

Repeat this for a minimum of 5 breaths in and 5 breaths out. A good number to aim for is 10.

Optional Extras:

Depending on the age of the children some may have difficulty with the concept of breathing slowly. If this is the case you can use the toy bubbles to help them get the idea. Show them that when blowing bubbles they have to breathe out very slowly or the bubble will burst. Once they have got this concept you can remove the bubbles and get them to repeat the sensation without the prop.
Another option is to get them to feel their stomachs move in and out as they breathe. This is often good with older children. You can ask them to feel their stomach move out as they breathe in and imagine a balloon inflating inside them. When they breathe out they should imagine the balloon deflating.
It can also be good to put this activity in context for children by allowing them to discuss how the breathing made them feel. Ask them if they could feel their air going in and out, if they felt relaxed afterwards and to tell you anything else they may have observed. When they are actively engaged in the activity they will be more likely to remember to use it later if they are feeling anxious or worried.
This is also a good technique to use with the Pip. If you have Pips available ask them to try calm breathing versus quick breathing and see how this changes how fast their dragon flies on Relax and Race or how the graph changes on Stress Tracker. This will show them in a very visual way how calm breathing can help them to relax. You can have some children use the Pip while others practice breathing and then switch.

All children Stress about things in their life.

The word ‘stress’ is seen as a negative word but actually stress can be good for us. Not only does it sharpen our thinking to help deal with challenges but periods of stress can teach us important coping and resilience strategies. The same is true for children. Small challenges, stresses or worries in a child’s life can help them, with support, to develop the coping mechanisms they will need to deal with bigger stresses later on. The important thing is to stop stress from becoming distress.

As hard as we try to let kids be kids it can sometimes be difficult to stop our own stresses seep into our interactions with children. Kids are highly attuned to emotions and can pick up on parental stress. In fact parental stress in early childhood is known to affect children both behaviourally and biologically [1]. The good news is that a few simple activities can help to reduce children’s stress.

Here we list 4:

Mindful Parenting – we’ve all heard about mindfulness and the benefits it has in our own lives but a new area of research is investigating mindful parenting. The aim of mindful parenting is to bring mindfulness techniques such as acceptance and in-the-moment awareness into interactions with children. The widespread benefit of this approach has yet to be validated with full randomized control trials but early results show some promising effects on improving relationships between parents and children and reducing risky behaviours in adolescents [2,3]. Many schools are also starting to introduce mindfulness programmes for children themselves.

Physical Activity – children who are physically active have less extreme responses to stress than their non-active peers, a recent study found [4]. If your child is stressed out or anxious sending them outside to kick a ball around or play chasing with their friends may be a good way to distract them in the short term and help them to build up resilience in the long term.

Play – play is particularly important for helping children to develop cognitively, socially and emotionally. A report on children’s play in 2007 suggested that in the modern world children can be over-scheduled for after-school activities leading in some cases to more stress [5]. Free play with friends can be equally important for reducing stress and building resilience. In addition, an intervention study found that mother-child play for 10 minutes a day, 5 days a week both reduced maternal stress and improved children’s cognitive development [6]. So if you find both yourself and your child are stressed out try some free play time to bring you both back to equilibrium.

Sleep – sleep is important for everyone but it is critical for children, whose brains are still growing and developing. A recent study found that children who had poor quality of sleep had greater stress responses than their peers [7]. Ensuring that your child has a good, stable sleep routine is an important way of helping their brains to develop properly and leave them able to face the challenges of growing up.